


Chase the Morning

by galacticdrift (Ancalime)



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Doctor Who AU, F/F, Gen, I did resist the urge to make Paula into River Song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 13:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1120373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ancalime/pseuds/galacticdrift
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Maxine is the Doctor and meets Paula while pretending to be a med student.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chase the Morning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thewondersmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewondersmith/gifts).



> For Kas, in exchange for the wonderful Lucy Smokeheart art she made for me. Hope you enjoy!

"So you're _not_ really studying to be a Doctor?"

"Not really, no." Maxine drew the words out, an apologetic smile on her face. "More like trying to isolate a weird signal that's been broadcasting from the area for several months now but goes silent every time I bring the TARDIS in close enough to scan."

"I'm not even going to ask, but-- but you know your way around London so well!" Paula waved her hands around, gesturing at the little cafe they'd just left. "You know where all the best fish and chips places are!"

"And you didn't think that was a little strange for a foreigner?" Maxine lifted one eyebrow.

"I just-- I thought you'd visited them all because fish and chips are such a tourist thing for an American to do." Even as she said it, Paula's face reddened, and Maxine burst out laughing. "No, stop it, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that!"

"I know, I know," Maxine said, catching her breath. "You did hear the part where I said space _and_ time, right?"

"I...see," Paula said, looking uncertain.

"Anyway, this isn't even _close_ to my first visit to London. Love the place, one of my absolute favorites." Maxine looked around her with a smile. "I even used to sound British, most of the time."

"What." Seeing Paula's confusion, Maxine patted her on the shoulder and nodded down the lane.

"Come on, you can help me investigate."

**

"Did you ask me to have coffee with you because you knew I'd been offered a Pandora Haze internship?" Paula said, her voice low as they shuffled through drawers and swiped touchscreens to check for unlocked computers.

"No, of course not, I asked you to have coffee with me because I think you're an interesting person I'd like to get to know better." Maxine said, frowning at her.

"Oh." Paula bit her lip and looked down to see the familiar Pandora Haze background logo standard to all the computers on the campus. "Here we go, got one."

"Very good. Let's see what we can dig up, shall we?" Maxine slung herself into to the chair and began typing away, murmuring to herself under her breath. "Keep an eye on the hallway, would you?"

Paula crept to the door of the room and cracked it open just a sliver. She didn't see or hear anything, and when she poked her head out to check, the whole way was clear, not a single light or sound suggesting anyone was at work.

"All clear. I don't like it. It's not _so_ late that I would have expected everyone to have gone home by now."

There was a high-pitched buzzing noise and a light flickering from where Maxine sat. "That's to be expected when the CEO sends an email to everyone on the premises around lunch time, ordering them to leave within the hour." Maxine tapped on the screen.

"What possible reason would Professor Van Ark have to do that?" Paula's brows furrowed.

"On-site testing of the sprinkler facilities, it says." Maxine stood up. "But somehow I'm dubious. Let's go check out the water systems in the basement."

"That sounds completely safe and not dangerous at all," Paula said under her breath, and Maxine's laughter led her down the hallway.

**

" _Why are there zombies in the sub-basement!?_ " Paula and Maxine had given up all pretense of stealth as they crashed through double-doors and skidded around corners, the gray shambling hordes behind them like something from a horror movie. The thought crossed Paula's mind that they were in the wrong genre of story, and a hysterical laugh bubbled out of her between gasping breaths as they ran.

"They're not really _zombies_ , it's a distorted physical and mental state caused by imbalances in the-- oh thank god, the south stairs, here we go--" Maxine pushed Paula through the doorway and then slammed it behind them. "Keep going! Up to the top!"

Paula didn't wait for a signed invitation; she barely slowed down as she climbed the steps, and Maxine was close behind her after another flash of blue light and high-pitched buzz.

"Should hold them for a bit, but we've got to get to Van Ark's office and shut this whole thing down."

**

"Two...hearts?"

"Makes more sense, don't you think? Having two of things. Two eyes, two lips, two nostrils -- but not two whole noses, goodness, that would be strange."

"May I?" Paula touched the stethoscope that hung around her neck, and had by some miracle not gone flying when they were forced to flee the grounds of Pandora Haze's headquarters at top speed, the heat of the explosion sending a great draft of hot air and dust after them.

"May you what, feel me up? Absolutely." Maxine waggled her eyebrows. "Want me to take my shirt off?"

Paula frowned. "I want to listen to your heartbeat -- heartbeats? heartsbeat? -- because I'm still not sure I believe you."

"Of course." Maxine stripped off her jacket and tossed it aside, then undid a couple of buttons on her shirt as a flush crept up Paula's neck.

"Good enough? Or should I do a few more?"

"Since you were actually in class that day, you and I both know that that's plenty, thank you very much." Paula rolled her eyes and stepped in close, settling the stethoscope's earpieces in place and transferring the chestpiece from where it had been cupped in her hand to Maxine's chest, her fingers just brushing the open shirt.

Maxine sat up straight and took a deep breath, and Paula's eyes flicked downward to the swell of cleavage that rose upward. She could just see a hint of Maxine's bra, eggplant satin peeking out at her from under the dark gray shirt.

A steady heartbeat sounded in her ears. Paula almost thought she could hear her own echoing it, but as her hand moved the chestpiece of the stethoscope over to the right, she heard the 'heartbeat' fade and the 'echo' grow louder.

"You really do have two hearts."

"I really do." Paula closed her eyes, listening to the sound as she moved the chestpiece back and forth. After a minute or so of this, Maxine slowly leaned back; at first Paula was too wrapped up in the curiosity of it to notice, but when she realized she was leaning over Maxine on the TARDIS console, she blinked and looked up, backing away in embarrassment.

Maxine reached over to where she'd tossed her jacket and pulled out what looked like a fancy slimline forehead thermometer -- until she gave it a flick and the end bloomed open and lit up sky-blue. She pointed it at the stethoscope and pressed a button, and Paula heard the same high-pitched buzz she'd heard before. The stethoscope tingled against her fingers.

"What was that? What did you do?"

"Just gave it a little tune-up. Don't lose it, now." Maxine straightened from where she'd cocked a hip against the TARDIS console.

"How else do you differ from humans?"

Maxine sighed with excessive drama and rolled her eyes. "Here I got you leaning over me and staring down my cleavage and all you want to do is talk shop?"

Paula stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "You're an alien!"

"We went out for coffee!" Maxine shifted her weight, folding her arms across her chest -- and putting her gaping shirt on display in the process.

"At the time, I thought you were human!" Paula said. "It's bad enough the kind of things one female human being can catch from another. I'm going to be a doctor, I think interspecies compatibility is a pretty healthy and reasonable concern."

"You know, you're right." Maxine grinned. "We should do some experiments."

"We should most certainly not 'do some experiments!' We could-- either of us could have some kind of reaction, we could die--"

"Easy, Paula, calm down." Maxine held out her hands. "I'm sorry. I teased you a little too hard, didn't I? The truth is, I'm nine hundred years old. I've been around the block a time or two. I've had children. Trust me when I say there are no compatibility issues between Time Lords and humans."

"Oh. Well, in that case--" Paula leaned forward and grabbed Maxine's arms, tilting her head down to kiss the shorter woman.

When they pulled apart a few minutes later, Paula's hair was even less contained, and Maxine's shirt was completely unbuttoned.

"Okay," Maxine said. "Right now, you have two choices."

"And those two choices would be?"

"One is this -- you go out that door," Maxine pointed to the door of the TARDIS, "and return to your life as a med student."

"And the other?"

"The other is this --" and here Maxine gestured to the ship around them. "Travel with me for a while. See the universe before you go back to your normal life. I'll drop you off the very same minute you leave."

Paula stepped forward and placed her hand in Maxine's, a gleam in her eye and a smile on her lips. "When do we go first?"


End file.
